> I consistently argue that the issue with Plex is not income, but desperately attempting to rebrand as a “legitimate” media centre.
If they are low on income due to non-recurring life-time purchases (which I have made myself), and the streaming thingies offered is a income-driver...
I say it's both.
> Look at the marketing materials and features from the last few years: Specifically trying to avoid any thought of pirated content.
I realize this may not reflect the majority use-case, but using Plex for non-pirated content it's still absolutely something people do.
Personally on my Plex-server, I host Photos from all the family, music I've purchased either digitally, or ripped from CDs I own, more accessible copies of DVDs/Bluerays I've also bought and owned, not to mention other DRM-free movies, media and various courses I've bought online.
In my jurisdiction none of this is illegal, and using Plex to manage that media makes managing that media-collection so much better. Why everyone assumes Plex can only be used for pirated contents beats me.
Plex just works(tm), everywhere, no matter what I feed it, and I remember with great dismay how things used to be before I had Plex.
The day Jellyfin gets good enough, I might switch, because it's FOSS and I like FOSS, but for the time being, the simplicity and just-works-ness of Plex means I'll stick around.